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The above photographs are on the back cover of our December 2006 The Ignitor. The caption reads: 2006, seemed no matter what picture I took, this kid was there. And not only me. Scott Higgins caught that upper right picture. Eric McConnon is age 14. Eric tells me that he has Volunteered at our place since he was in diapers. But admits he is now more involved. With our steam team top left. Helping Virgil with the Rock Crusher lower left. Running our 200 Western lower right.

As most of you know, our 200 horsepower Western engine ran during the second weekend of show, if only for a few minutes. I took on the engine as a project a few weeks after the June show, in the hopes of getting it running. I had actually never seen the engine run, although I had heard from Earl Wolf, Dan Jaques, and others that it had run in the past.

Working weekends, and whenever I could sneak out to the museum during the week, I slowly did the needed maintenance on the engine. Most of the work I did myself, but it would have been impossible without some well-appreciated help from Paul Smith, Rudy Dremely, Bob Morley, Robert Critz, Robert Richardson, Pat Mackin, Rich Eckert, Bruce Yoho, Virgil White, Larry Thompson, Gary Clare, and Kent Graham. I hope I didn't leave anyone out?

Now before I tell the story of its restoration, let me give you a bit of history on this engine. The engine was made by the Western Enterprise engine company of Los Angeles, California in 1932. It is a two-cylinder, natural gas fueled engine. It is rated at 200 horsepower, but it has a bore and stroke identical to a 160 horsepower engine. It is what Western called a “Precision-timed” engine.

The way it makes more power from the same displacement is that the valve timing and valve linkage has been modified. Normal Western engines used pushrods to open the intake valves, and large rocker arms to open the exhaust valves. This engine has a sideshaft which operates the much smaller intake and exhaust valve rocker arms. This engine is an extremely late style for the year it was manufactured; most engine builders had forsaken the single and double-cylinder designs for smaller, faster–running engines with more cylinders.

Western only made three precision-timed engines. They made the engine we have, another engine identical to it, and a single-cylinder version, all rated at 100 horsepower per cylinder. The other two engines were scrapped, so this is the ONLY remaining example of a precision-timed Western ANYWHERE. Our engine was originally in the Ontario Ice and Cold Storage plant in Ontario, California, where it was belted up to a generator and an ammonia compressor. Virgil White, Dave Denny, and the late Bill Rohr moved the engine over a period of three days in the mid-1980s.

When I started work on it, the engine was not in bad shape, just neglected. All kinds of assorted junk had collected around the engine over the years. Someone had left the filling cap on one of the force-feed oilers off, and water had completely filled the oiler. The cooling passages were supposedly filled with rust, the magneto wires were gone, the magneto did not spark. The pillow block bearing was sitting about a half-inch below the outboard shaft (which was all rusty). The water pump was frozen, the governor belt was ruined by the weather, and the mixer and governor linkage was frozen or sticking.

The oiler was an easy project, along with freeing up the mixer and governor linkage. The cooling passages were easy to flush out with a garden hose, but getting the lower water manifold off was a problem. The unions holding the water manifold onto the engine were naturally seized from years of rust, and a big wrench was needed to turn them. However, the unions were placed in spots that made some of them VERY awkward to turn.

After I sanded all the rust off the outboard shaft, Rudy Dremel helped me raise the pillow block so it would carry some weight. The engine needed a Gasometer, so Kent Graham, with his sheetmetal expertise and tools, helped with the construction of a bottom tank for the Gasometer. A Gasometer top in good condition was already lying by the engine, so naturally that was used. The water pump took a backseat, but Bob Morley and Bruce Yoho helped free it up.

Larry Thompson and Gary Clare fabricated a new governor belt. A few days before the first weekend of show, Rich Eckert and I got the magneto sparking again. The points in the mag were shot, and needed replacing. Thankfully, Rich knew where to find some, and got the mag in working order that day. Pat Mackin loaned out a fuel line for the project, along with a few minor pipe fittings.

The engine was ready to run Saturday evening. Leo Zugner and a few others aided me. The compressor was fired up, the Gasometer was filled, and the engine was put in position. I threw the air valve wide open and let the engine spin over a few times, shut the valve, and the engine immediately began firing away. I heard the blowby squeak past the pistons when it fired hard the first two or three times, and then the engine was silent. It was running allright, but it was almost impossible to hear it hitting. Just about the only sounds were the intake and exhaust valves clicking.

The engine was running real slow however, so we fiddled with the mixer, and it picked up a bit. However, the small tank we were using was too small to keep up with the gas demand, so it got very cold and stopped providing enough gas. We stopped the engine, let the tank warm up, refilled the Gasometer, and restarted the engine. It only ran for another five minutes before it died, but it ran good and I was pleased to see the engine run again.

The engine only ran once on Sunday, and for no more than 10 minutes. I decided that a bigger tank would keep up with the demand better and not cool off as much, so Kevin (I’m not sure of his last name; he is often found on gas engine row) and I grabbed an extra 75 pound tank from by the 80 horsepower Western. We hauled it over to the 200, and I proceeded to hook it up. I also decided to remove the regulator and feed the propane directly from the tank into the Gasometer, keeping the ball valve for a control, so that there would be no restriction in the line.

The engine was extremely reluctant to start. I had Tom Garrison announce it on the P.A. system, and a crowd had gathered. About ¾ of them had left by the time the engine started on the fourth or fifth attempt. Robert Critz was there, along with Leo Zugner and a few others. I played around with the mixer adjustments and manually worked the throttle, in an attempt to conserve gas, while keeping the engine running fast enough so it would catch when I opened the throttle wide.

For some strange reason, after I opened the throttle full-bore, the engine always coasted about 10 revolutions before it fired again. I let it go too far without opening the throttle, and it died. Robert and I tried to restart it, but there wasn’t enough air left in the tanks. The governor still needs adjusting and the mixer will need fine-tuning, but all in all, it is an excellent engine to run.